Having moved many times, my top tips are:

1. Move as little food as possible. Use up anything that’s open or perishable as you can and avoid buying new food until you move. It is absolutely the number one avoidable mess maker while moving.

Go through your cupboards now and bin anything expired. Be ruthless! Use today or bin it! You haven’t used it yet, do not spend energy moving it! Are there non perishables close to date? Use them now. Are there unopened things still within date that you don’t think you’ll use? Donate! Many organizations do pickup if you call. Donate most of your unexpired canned goods and unopened non perishables to a food pantry. You’ll be doing a good deed and can start fresh with only things you need! (Do not donate anything expired, it is such a hassle and expense for the food pantry to deal with!) If you feel bad about binning expired canned goods, take a picture of them, place outside with a first come first serve sign/Post to your local buy nothing with a mention that they are expired but show no signs of spoilage. They’ll be gone within hours to people willing to take them.

2. Inventory your towels and linens. Anything in bad shape? Wash it, then put in your kitchen to wrap dishes. While unpacking on the other side, put all these in a place to be used as rags.

3. Don’t move broken things. As above, if you haven’t fixed it by now (and it didn’t break within the last couple weeks) do not move it. Put it outside with a “broken but free to any takers” sign/take a quick pic and post to a buy nothing group. Don’t leave them in the rain, and take anything that’s not gone within 2 days to a collection point or dump.

4. Clean your kettle now before the move! Fresh kettle is always best!

5. Pack your “move first” box and most precious items now and make sure you move that box yourself! Photo albums, jewelry, meaningful knickknacks, stuffed animals–do it now rather than saving them for last to prevent them being lost. Label “Most sentimental” or similar so that you know what the boxes are. Movers or friends won’t know what items would be irreplaceable to you, so pack those few things now to give yourself peace of mind!

6. Pack your hobby items now: you won’t need them anytime soon. Any abandoned WIPs? Give away or bin (depending on the hobby and status) to free yourself from the mental burden of knowing you haven’t finished them.

Be ruthless with crafting supplies, especially things that may be well expired like opened glue or paints.

7. Go through your bathroom cabinets!
-Medecines: Any and all opened medecines past their date? Remove them from recyclable packaging and put them in a bag or car to dispose of them at the pharmacy (please do not bin them!)
-Pack your essentials in your handbag now! Ensure that controlled prescriptions are moved by you/your family only.
-Go through your toiletries. Opened makeup is good for around 3 months unless you are religious about only using it on a perfectly clean face and not double dipping, then it may be good for a couple months longer. Bin anything suspect or old–your face will thank you!
-Use up as many opened shampoos, etc as you can.
-Donate unused, unexpired, unopened products to the food pantry if you can.
-Throw out opened stuff you don’t want. Pour as much as you can into a single container to be able to recycle the others.

8. Look through your books. Donate or put out for free books you don’t want. If you have friends offering to help, this is a nice, calming one for a helpful friend to take care of. Get small boxes from a wine store if you can–so much easier to move! Movers can put them into bigger boxes if they must

9. Inventory your kitchen. What is damaged and needs replacing? Take it to the bin or collect point for metals. Clean your appliances if you can. Hire someone to deepclean your oven and/or dishwasher before moving if you can–your energy is better spent decluttering your things!

10. Go through your junk areas and attic/storage spaces/garage. Be ruthless! Take out your holiday decorations, then cast a critical eye: what are the things you actually take out and use and what are you holding onto? Take out the things you need, hire someone to take big items and other junk away. This is the stuff that has a moving cost and a space cost –get rid of it now!

10. Contrary to the other parts of your house: have any children pack up their things. If going through their stuff is overwhelming and emotional, just pack everything up and go through their things as you open the boxes. I did this with my last big move, and it saved me so much time! Emotionally, confronting one box of kid stuff at a time was much easier than decluttering first, and it was much more fair to my kids! We unpacked one box at a time, every day, and we either put an item away in the room, put coloring pages into a binder or into recycling, or put toys in a “special Santa” pile if they didn’t want it anymore (mine are still young, so it was easier than telling them something is broken and needs to be binned! I triaged afterwards and put anything broken into the bin in the dark of night!). We took a box of cleaned and gently used donations together, and the charity worker explained to the children how happy they would make other children. It was a really positive experience for them, and they now have a growing attitude of “passing on” rather than “keeping forever”, which I find to be a very positive outlook as they grow!

I hope at least one of these tips is helpful! Moving all in one day sounds very stressful!

Tip 11: Wipe down any cupboards before you unpack–you just don’t know what people put in them, if they had the time to clean them, or what might be mothy, etc. Get some lavender sachets for your clothes and Bay leaves and moth traps now in case for your food cupboard and pantry!